Artist cartoonist Gareth Gaudin and his daughters Lyra Gotham, left, and Enid Jupiter make monster faces on the Cadborosaurus in Gyro Park. Gaudin creates comics starring Enid Jupiter, 5, and Lyra Gotham, 2. The next issue, due out in June, features Cadborosaurus.

Dad’s day with Monster Sisters

The mischievous face of Gareth Gaudin’s Perogy Cat has long been a Victoria favourite – enlivening the city’s sandwich boards, coffee cups, Chuck Taylor’s and the pages of his birthplace, The Magic Teeth Dailies. Gaudin’s art has earned the Legend’s Comics co-owner a slew of different roles: from becoming the artist in residence at the Royal BC Museum, to leading a graphic novel book club at Vancouver Island Regional Correction Centre, to illustrating the poetry of Shane Koyczan in a 108-page book to be launched June 13 at Dales Gallery.

Plus he’s the coolest dad in town. Another of Gaudin’s recent undertakings, Enid Jupiter and Lyra Gotham, the Monster Sisters, is an original comic of his creation, based on his five- and two-year-old daughters by the same names.

“We’re all waiting for ‘The Big One,’ the earthquake, but I figured The Big One was just a giant monster destroying Victoria’s architecture, so my two daughters are Victoria-centric architecture students with a hideout in Gyro Park. … When they put the railings on the breakwater, I was all upset until I realized that was going to be a great monster.”

Gaudin has been touring local schools with the comics, the first of which launched last September. His eldest daughter, Enid Jupiter, too, has been swept into the limelight.

“Every time we go out she has to sign autographs, which is crazy,” Gaudin says. “She’s proud as hell. She loves being a superhero.”

While Enid Jupiter is aware of the subtleties of the project and supplies useful advice on the plot, Gaudin says, Lyra Gotham is just happy to be along for the ride.

The cover of issue No. 2 features the front of the Turner building on Fort Street – an illustration the artist sold in a successful effort to save the iconic building from demolition. Rich in Victoria history, thanks largely to his research at RBCM, the comic books have quickly become Gaudin’s most successful to date.

Issue No. 3 of Enid Jupiter and Lyra Gotham, the Monster Sisters, launches on June 14 from 1 to 4pm at Dales Gallery (537 Fisgard). The event is open to all the kids who read it.

“I’ll be teaching and drawing with them and we’ll all create superheroes together,” he says.